Many
would say that after Tales of Vesperia, Namco’s JRPG series began to decline in
quality. With Zestiria just recently released, let’s take a quick look at these
games and their flaws.
Tales
of Graces f
Tales
of Graces f is a rather polarizing
title. Some think that it was the last great title in the series, while others
think it was responsible for the start of the series’ so called “decline”. Most
agree that while the cast are memorable characters with great interaction, the
main plot is the weakest of the series. Its main theme is “the power of
friendship”, and it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the darker themes
that Vesperia and Symphonia covered.
My
Personal Take: Graces brings with it one of the most
loved battle systems in the series. It’s much faster paced compared to most
prior titles, and I do agree that the main characters are some of the best in
the series. Graces also has a lot of content and replay value. However, it
suffers from having the weakest main story and soundtrack in the series.
Tales
of Xillia
Tales
of Xillia brought with it some new mechanics and a revamped battle system that
brings it closer to the classic titles in the series. Unfortunately, the game
suffered from somewhat rushed production in order to release on the series’ 15th
anniversary. The criticism I’ve heard about this game mainly stated that the
dual-story mechanic was somewhat pointless in practice as there wasn’t enough
deviation between Jude’s story and Milla’s story.
My
Personal Take: Xillia’s battle system is more similar
to the likes of Vesperia and Symphonia, but retains the things that made Graces
fast-paced. It’s arguably more beginner friendly than Graces’ battle system. As
for the plot and characters, I found them to be mostly solid. As I mentioned
earlier, however, this game suffers from rushed production (and questionable
design choices, too, to an extent). The various fields you explore in between
towns are almost unbearably generic in layout. The game certainly looks pretty,
but there’s not much going on in terms of hidden secrets here in these fields.
Xillia’s finale also ended up feeling rushed; the game ends a little too
abruptly to allow more development for Elympios. Overall, however, it was still
a great game.
Tales
of Xillia 2
Tales
of Xillia 2 is, without a doubt, one of the most divisive entries in the
franchise. Importers who had played the game in Japanese claimed that it was a
large improvement over the first game. But when Xillia 2 was released in
America, it was heavily criticized by fans (and some critics) for: recycling
almost everything the first game had, poor story design, and questionable
decisions for gameplay mechanics. Although the battle system is generally
considered an improvement, Ludger’s weapon switching and Chromatus abilities
made him the best (and most overpowered) character in the game.
My
Personal Take: I generally enjoyed Xillia 2 and its
plot more than the first game. But looking back, there are several glaring
flaws. First of all, the choice system was marketed as a large part of the
game. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do enough to affect the story, with the final
choices at the very end being the only ones that affect the ending. Second of
all, the debt system is completely pointless. They don’t even give a good
reason for it, storywise; Ludger gets injured early in the plot and racks up a
large medical bill from Spirius Corporation. What makes this even worse is that
for such a “major” mechanic, the debt cannot be paid off until the post-game,
leading to a non-canon ending.
Another issue this game has is the restrictiveness
of your party. Within each chapter, you’re stuck with specific characters that
cannot be swapped out. And between each chapter, you can only switch party
members while in a town. On top of all of this, Ludger is stuck in your party
until the post-game. This leads to one of the most difficult main story bosses
later in the game, as your party setup is less than ideal, and the boss in question
can deal a ton of damage very quickly.
Although I enjoyed Xillia 2’s story, it does have
several flaws as well. Namco’s writing team decided to go with quantity over
quality in terms of fractured dimensions. There’s a bunch of them that you
destroy over the course of the game, each focusing on something that could have
gone differently in the past. But the problem here is that there isn’t enough
development for each fractured dimension for the player to care. What they
should have done was cut down on the amount of fractured dimensions visited,
while lengthening your stay in each one to allow for emotional development.
This could have also tied very well into the choice system if you were allowed
to choose between destroying or sparing the dimension in question. As a whole,
though, Xillia 2 was still a fun game, but has glaring flaws that make it hard
to revisit.
Tales
of Hearts R
In
the west, Tales of Hearts R is also somewhat polarizing. It was a niche RPG for
the Vita (which is not performing very well in terms of sales). This lead to
Namco’s decision to omit an English dub for this game and caused some backlash
by fans. Although the game itself is generally agreed upon as “good”, it received
criticism for the lack of a dub and poor translation.
My
Personal Take: Tales of Hearts R has a great battle
system that refines what worked in Xillia while adding a larger focus on aerial
combat. In terms of gameplay, it’s pretty much a classic Tales game. You have
your world map, sidequests, dungeon puzzles, and so on. Overall, it’s a game
that has a solid foundation, but plays it safe instead of innovating a little
more on the series formula.
I enjoyed the story and cast, but neither really matches
the standards that the series had set before. I found the translation to be
fine; people have said it basically adds more life to the comparatively dry
Japanese script at the cost of being somewhat inaccurate. The lack of a dub is
a bigger problem to me. I’m fine with Japanese voice acting, but I’ve found
that voice acting in a game has much more impact if it’s in a language you’re
actually familiar with.
I think Tales of Hearts R is a great game
on its own, but it ranks as above-average by my standards for the series. The
gameplay is great, the cast and story are decent, and the soundtrack is weak;
there’s not much else to it.
Tales
of Zestiria
Upon
release in Japan, it caused controversy as Japanese players complained about a
character leaving your party part of the way through the game. Most fans will
probably have an idea as to who I’m referring to, but I won’t spoil it. This
issue, however, is more of a flaw in the way the game was marketed in Japan.
The only other really major problem that many had with this game is the battle
camera. As battles now take place directly on the field, the camera can
occasionally get stuck in narrow hallways, making it hard to see where you are
during a fight.
My
Personal Take: I haven’t gotten very far into Tales of
Zestiria yet, but I’m enjoying it a lot more than the previous entries. The
game has more complex mechanics that add a layer of strategy in terms of
customization and battling. The battle system mixes together the things that
worked in Graces and Xillia 2. Armitization, while powerful, isn’t as broken as
Ludger’s Chromatus. It’s possible to take damage and even die while your
characters are fused, meaning that two characters are down. Though the party
system forces you to have two humans and two seraphim, it doesn’t necessarily
feel as restricted as Xillia 2’s locked party setups did. At the moment,
though, I’m finding the game surprisingly easy. As for the camera problems, it has supposedly been addressed in the Day 1 patch for the PS4 version. I haven't really experienced issues with the camera myself.
The environments are much larger than previous
games, and generally are more interesting than what the Xillia duology gave us.
Battles and cutscenes being seamless also helps make the experience smoother
and more enjoyable.
The story and cast are medieval European fantasy in
nature, which is refreshing as no title in the series has seriously done this
before. The plot is clichéd as it gets so far (though it apparently gets better
later in the game), but it’s a better cliché than what Graces went with. The
soundtrack is also notably better than what other recent Tales games have given
us. So far, though, Zestiria seems to be the most ambitious title in the
series.
Overall
Whether
the series went through any sort of decline at all is debatable, but these past
few games all have had notable flaws. Even then, the Tales series has been
gaining popularity in the West since the release of Tales of Graces f. If the Xillia games can be considered
a low point for the series, though, then Zestiria is a very large step in the
right direction. As a whole, I still love this series and am looking forward to
what Tales of Berseria has to offer.
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